Tag Archives: veto

I recently wrote an article exposing the 600 bills waiting on California Governor Jerry Brown’s desk. The sheer number of bills combined with their stifling and oppressive content caught the attention of a lot of readers. Many people were shocked by some of the proposed bills that included a bill to establish a Fitness Award in schools, one banning minors from using tanning beds, and a California “Dream Act” that would allow illegal alien students to receive state aid for college. Even Governor Brown has mentioned that the number of bills California lawmakers have sent him is a bit out of control.

One bill in particular caused quite a stir here in the state of California: The Babysitter Bill. This bill would allow (require) babysitters and in-home caretakers to unionize. It would have effectively ended the childcare industry in California by requiring parents to follow union employment standards. That would mean date night would require two babysitters, one to relieve the main sitter every two hours for a mandated fifteen minute break and lunch breaks. Also, parents would be asked to provide health insurance and workman’s comp insurance. Maybe its just me, but dinner and a movie with my husband once a month is not worth the cost of a dental plan for my college-student sitter. We’ll just do pay-per-view, thank you very much.

As it turns out, Governor Brown has decided to veto the Babysitter Bill, along with several others, including one that would have criminalized child skiing and snowboarding without proper head gear. Oh, did you need to read that again? Yes, there was actually a bill on Brown’s desk to monitor every kid on every slope in California-stan to make sure they have the proper head gear. In reference to that bill Brown said:

“While I appreciate the value of wearing a ski helmet, I am concerned about the continuing and seemingly inexorable transfer of authority from parents to the state. Not every human problem deserves a law.

I believe parents have the ability and responsibility to make good choices for their children.”

I never thought I’d say this, but Brown makes sense! Of course, he lost any “common sense” points by signing other job-killing, questionable bills such as:

SB 126 – forces farmers to allow agricultural workers on their private farms to unionize without witnesses or elections. If one worker decides to unionize, the rest will be forced to do so as well. Californians can expect food prices to raise significantly in the coming months.

But the most disturbing bill Governor Brown signed into law has to be AB 499, which allows school staff, nurses, and others to push the HPV vaccine upon girls as young as 12 years old, without parental consent. With all the attention paid to Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Gardasil mandate, it seems strange that this isn’t a bigger deal in the news. Schools will be allowed to give girls a vaccination for a sexually transmitted disease without parental consent or even notification. As the mother of a 4 year old daughter I find that absolutely chilling.

Jerry Brown seems to be walking a strange tightrope in the state of California. As a Democrat he is still beholden to the unions that basically run the state, but as Governor he is privy to the dearth of inside information regarding California’s fiscal state. Brown is no idiot. He knows that California is dying, and every new bill regulating the day to day lives of average earners is another nail in the coffin. But Brown is also a typical, self-interested liberal. In the end, its his own job and legacy that matters to him. He’ll continue to alienate and destroy the actual producers in this state for as he can, until one day California will simply collapse under the weight of its own regulation.

600 bills. 725 new laws. “Prosperity” sure comes with a lot of red tape these days.